Motivational speaker has a personal message

Brittany Turner-Brunton has had many operations to deal with congenital cranial and facial abnormalities. Dr. Steven Cohen (left) has been a major player in the transformative operations.
— Peggy Peattie / UNION-TRIBUNE

Brittany Turner-Brunton has had many operations to deal with congenital cranial and facial abnormalities. Dr. Steven Cohen (left) has been a major player in the transformative operations.
— Peggy Peattie / UNION-TRIBUNE

Facial and cranial abnormalities related to a rare genetic illness — Crouzon syndrome — made Brittany Turner-Brunton ﻿stand out in any crowd.

And among cruel folks, young and old, she was often an object of derision and scorn.

But her dad, Richard Brunton, ﻿and a core of long-lasting friends provided strong moral support. And somehow, Brittany learned at a tender age that our lives are how we make them, not how others may view them.

So the Spring Valley native says, “I never really” felt the sting of the mean-spirited folks.

And when a teacher, no less, suggested that her appearance would always hold her back, she stood strong and resolute.

“I was going into the sixth grade at the time,” recalls Brittany, now 21 and a sophomore studying public relations and communications at San Diego State University. “What that teacher said hurt, but I didn’t let it (stay with me). I promised myself right then and there that I would spend the rest of my life trying to prove (that teacher) wrong. And today, I can say that it’s beautiful to be different.”

Brittany, who celebrated the last of four major surgeries to correct problems related to Crouzon’s a month before her 21st birthday in December, is a motivational speaker.

Her goal is to encourage more kids to rise above the stigma of physically deforming illnesses.

She occasionally does speaking engagements for Rady Children’s Hospital and recently appeared on a segment of “The Doctors” television show.

Crouzon’s, which affects about four in every 100,000 people, causes bones in the head and face to fuse together, often impairing vision and damaging the brain.

Brittany also is the heart and soul of a nonprofit charity she started when she was 11 to get books for underprivileged youngsters. She figures that her Happy Birthday Book Foundation has collected more than 200 books for kids at Perkins Elementary School.

Despite her disorder, Brittany was always an active kid, sensitive to community needs.

A large part of the credit goes to her father, who owns and operates Pure Water Systems.

Recognizing that “Brittany has been through a lot,” including her parents’ divorce, Richard Brunton kept his daughter involved in things that he believed would help her develop social skills.

In grade school, she attended the Museum School and San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, and many of the friends she made there remain friends today.

“And I don’t know what I would have done without them,” she says. “We bonded and socialized together and (her friends and her dad) kept me believing in myself” and visualizing her place in the scheme of things.

Dr. Steven Cohen, ﻿the director of craniofacial surgical services at Rady Children’s Hospital, performed the last two of Brittany’s surgeries. The doctor has come to know the young woman as more than a patient.

“She looks substantially different from the way she did when I first met her (four years ago),” Cohen says. “She’s clearly been through a lot with people who had been mean to her, for whatever reason. But she’s always been an easygoing kid. And she impresses me as a very good public speaker.”

Brittany remembers a lot about the six-hour operation. She understood that it was complex and only a handful of doctors perform such work.

Yet, she says she never doubted or feared that everything would not go well. Certainly she has great faith in God and in Cohen, but knowing that she had a strong support system pulling for her added to her strength.

That’s why she continues trying to pass her story on to other young people, Brittany says.

“It lets them know that problems can be overcome. And if I can do it, they can do it, too.”